Monday, June 23, 2008 Rama: Combat Focus Shooting By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
A FEW weeks ago, Pastor Boy Baguio of Lapu-Lapu City gave me a copy of a DVD by Rob Pincus, former Director of Operations and instructor of the Valhalla Training Center in Colorado, who now runs his own facility, ICE Training.
The DVD was on combat focus shooting, a school of thought that emphasizes the body’s instinctive reaction when threatened, and employing the techniques of shooting within that context.
Pincus recognized that it is more efficient to work with the natural reactions the body will manifest during a critical incident than to develop artificial techniques that counter them.
He observed that the human body does several things when startled—it crouches; the hands go up and shoot forward defensively; and, that the body orients itself towards the threat.
He reasoned that since these intuitive reactions occur faster than any cognitive response can, people should make use of them and train in such a way as to harness these responses as an advantage rather than fight them.
Moreover, he noted certain mental or psychological changes on the body during critical stress—tunnel vision, a decrease in fine motor skills and tachypsychia (literally speed of the mind), a neurological condition that distorts the perception of time, whereby things seem to progress on slow motion.
Smarting from this, he emphasizes a shooting method that no longer stresses on precision hits but passable “combat accuracy,” simplified movements and speed.
He advocates that trainees shoot from an aggressive crouch position and use a draw stroke that presents straight out from the chest rather than swinging up from the hip.
Moreover, risking harsh criticisms from the more “formal” shooting schools, he tells students to maintain focus on the target whenever practical—meaning at close distances, somewhere in the neighborhood of three yards—rather than on the front sight.
But at distance where shooters can no longer attain good hits by focusing on the threat, Pincus does instruct and drill students to focus on the front sight.
COMBAT ACCURACY. Good hits in a defensive shooting situation, Pincus argues, don’t mean sub-inch groups on the x-ring of a bulls-eye target, or making one-holes on an IPSC metric board.
Instead, he maintained, good hits are those that land and stops a threat quickly, without exposing the shooter to even more danger.
He asks students to visualize a cone that projects from the muzzle of the gun held by the defensive shooter and significantly covers a specific area of the anatomy of the attacker.
A hit anywhere inside the circumference of the cone that can cause the immediate incapacitation of the threat is a good hit.
Conversely, a defensive shooter who takes his time to make a good front-sight-rear-sight aim before discharging may deliver a precision shot that could mean a one-shot-stop.
However, the time spent on taking aim, he said, is time the attacker also has to take a good bead on the victim.
Students, he said, should strive to attain a balance between speed and precision. When the shots all touch each other on the target, he argued, it is likely that the shooter is shooting too slowly. However, when there is too much spread between hits, he recommends slowing down and achieving a bit of front sight focus.
GLOBE ON TARGET. Speaking of training, I had the pleasure of co-facilitating a shooting class held at by Rey Abad, United States Practical Shooting Association (PPSA) Grand Master, at the Kamagong Gun Club yesterday.
As it was his class, Rey prepared the module and centered his lessons on safe handling and precision. Armscor’s Joel Concepcion and I, on the other hand, busied ourselves with overseeing safety.
The participants, headed by Atty. Mac Gordon, took to the firing line and delivered good groups after coaching. They were shooting at National Rifle Association official silhouettes and turned it to tatters.
I have a feeling that I will be seeing the students on the range more and more the next couple of days.
